Automatic check device for trolley-cords



PATENTED FEB. 16, 1904.

' S. J. BUGKLAND.

AUTOMATIC G'H'EGK DEVIGE PO'R'TROLLBY OORD S.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 22. 1903.

H0 MODEL.

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a. vsaava UNITED STATES;

Patented February is, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

-sn'rn J. BUCK-LAND, or SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

AUTOMATIC CHECK DEVICE FOR TROL'LEY-CORDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 752,374, dated February 16, 1904. Application filed April 22, 1903. Serial. No. 153,769. (Non odeL) To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I SETH J. BUcKLANn, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Check Devices for Trolley-Cords, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to an improved check or restraining device for the cord for the trolley-arm of an electric railway-car automatically operative upon the displacement of the trolley-wheel from its running engagement along the trolley-wire, whereby the arm would under the reaction of the heavy spring thereof swing upwardly above the wire to restrain a trolley-arm from having any considerable extent of upward-swinging movement.

The object of the present invention is to provide a restraining or check device of the class indicated which is unusually simple in con: struction, involving a minimum of parts, and which is unusually efficient and quick in its automatic action, the novel device being, however, non-effective under ordinary conditions i or gradual winding or unwinding relatively and when the cord has a comparatively slow to the reel therefor, as incidental to changes in grade of the trackway or of the level of the trolley-wire or as occasioned when the trolley-arm is controlled and guided by manipulation of the cord to bring it to its running engagement against the wire to check or re. strain the rotational movements of the cordreel, as of course is necessary under ordinary and proper conditions.

The invention consists in a trolleycord-re straining device comprising a suitable case, a winding-reel therein, a winding-spring reactive in relation to the reel, a tooth-provided member provided to the reel, and a-peculiarlyarranged pawl normally passive as toits effeet for engagement with the teeth of thereel, but operative to quickly engage the teeth of the reel and to obstruct any considerable rotational movement of the reel when a rapid rotating stress is developed in the reel, as would be occasioned by thedisengagement of the trolley from the wire, resulting in a quick unwinding strain being imparted to the trolley-cord, and in certain further parts and features, all substantially as hereinafter fully de- .Fig. 3 is a view of portions shown inthe lower part of Fig. 1, the escapement or check pawl being shown in its reel-stopping engagement, which it would assume as due to a quickrotational movement of the tooth-flangereel occasioned by a sudden and rapid unwinding draft on the cord.

In the drawings, A represents the circular casing in which the, reel and devices ooacting therewith are inclosed, said casing having at its back a the rigid metallic strap B, by means of which to engage and support the case with and upon the lug C, provided on the face of the fenderofthe car, the spring-snap D detachably locking the parts, as indicated in Fig. 2. The back of the case has the internal circular boss 5 and the integrally-formed centralstud d, on the neck-down vforward end portion d of which the central circularly-apertured portion f of the cup-shaped reel G has bearing for rotation, while the annular cylindrical portion g of the reel toward the back of the casing has also bearing for rotation on the boss 6, said reel, portion g having the outwardly-extending flange it, provided with regularly-spaced teeth 21 '11 at comparatively long intervals. The reel has the thin metallic separated checks j, and has therewithin the clock-spring H, one end of which is anchored and the other has attachment to 1 the reel for producing in .a manner common in this class of devices a winding-up stress on the reel.

J represents the trolley-cord in winding engagement around the barrel portion g of the reel and running off therefrom through an opening therefor, (indicated at If in the upper portion of the casing.)

L represents the pawl, the same, as shown, comprising'the members 172 and n, which are arranged obtuse angular to each other, and the pawl is intermediately pivoted atio just inside the back wall of the casing for an oscil' latory movement in a plane of revolution of the ratchet-like teeth 6. The fronts or engagement portions 10 of the teeth i are quite acutely angular to the backs 12,-which latter recede to the least marginally-prominent portions 13 between the teeth, with curves or in-- maintain the checking member m thereof, as

seen in Fig. 1, out of the path of revolution of the teeth a, and consequently normally maintaining what may be considered theac tuating member n of the pawl in its position inclined across such path. The comparatively low degree of reactive, power of the springt is such as in practice to insure a timing of the successive outward motions of the pawl relatively to the ordinary oscillatory motion of the reel incidental to and occasioned by undulations in the trolley-wire.

The centralstud d is surrounded by a sleeve 20, to which the inner end of the spring H is secured, the end face of which sleeve, next tothe back I) of the casing, is constructed with a plurality of recesses 22, each having one boundary steep or perpendicular to the end face, while the other boundary is beveled,

constituting, in substance, a ratchet-toothed end face to the sleeve, with which engages the spring-pressed stud 23, fitted in a suitable socket therefor in the back wall of the casing.

spring H is such as to keepa steep sideof the tooth against the stud, securing the anchorage of the inner end of the spring to all intents and purposes the same as if it were secured to the axis-stud; but this arrange- 'ment constitutes a provision whereby any undue turning in the wrong direction of thereel so that it would cause an unwinding of the spring will be against no resistance at the inner end of the spring, for the reason that the sleeve to which the inner end of the spring is engaged will back around, clicking over the end of the stud 23'.

Assuming that the reel has imparted thereto a comparatively slow rotational movement in the direction of the arrow m, Fig. 1, as occasioned by the outward drawing of the trolley-cord as carried by the trolley-arm, which, for instance, may be swinging toward a rising portion of the-trolley-wire under the powerful impetus of the trolley-arm spring, the backs 12 of the teeth 2" will act cam lik'e against the actuating-arm a of the pawl, re-' sulting in throwing the checking-arm m of the pawl across the path of the teeth before the next rearward tooth reaches the end of -suclrpawl-arm m, and it will be understood that now there is a little intervening space between the left-hand end of pawl-arm m and the face 10 of the adjacent oncoming toothz' and that before the gradually-approaching teeth can come to where the end of the pawlarrn m was the spring t will have reswung such arm out of the tooths path, and thus several of the teeth '5 may ride by the pawl, which incidentally is oscillated, without any 'checking effect, however; but on another assumption that the trolley becomes disengaged from its wire and the trolley-arm upswinging causes a very sudden and quick rotary motion of the reel in the direction of the arrow at the nearest pawl-tooth to the leftward of the pawl-actuating arm n on reaching the latter will more or less Violently throw the pawl tothe position shown in Fig. 3 and the rapidly oncoming next rearward tooth i will be brought by its engagement edge 10 against the intercepting end of the working arm n of the pawl, the lazy-spring t being under such condltlons as now considered too slow 1n 1ts action to throw the pawl-arm m outside of the 1 path of the tooth before the swiftly-moving "toothreaches engagement therewith; Of course it isclear that any downward drawing on the trolley-cord whereby the latter will be automatically wound up by the reel, which in 'this instance would have its rotation the re- 'verse of the direction of the arrow w, is a matter requiring noconsideration, for the re- :lations of the pawl andratchet-like teeth z'are @such that this reversed rotation of the reel ,will occasion merely a clicking of its teeth E past the pawl, the latter incidentally vibrating. The ordinary rotative force or reaction exerted on or through the medium of the-spiral A provision of considerable practicability the actuating-armn of they pawl, against which such end may jam when the opposite end of the pawl is forcibly contacted against by one of the reel-teeth 41, as shown in Fig. 3, this abutment-shoulder serving to relieve the pivot 0 from becoming bent, strained, or otherwise effected in a manner to interfere with the delicacy of operation of the pawl.

Tests-of this checking device have demonstrated that the trolley disengaged from the wire can have only an upswing of from two to four inches before the trolley-arm will be automatically checked.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to'secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In atrolley-cord restraining device, the" combination with the casin g having the trolleycord-winding spring-reel, rotatable therewithin, said reel having a flange provided with a series of regularly-spaced ratchet-like teeth, of a pawl pivotally mounted at an intermedi ate portion thereof on a suitable part of the casing comprising the actuating-arm n and the checking-arm m, the distance between the extremities of which are less than the distance between the engagement edges of two of the teeth, said casing having the abutment-shoulder u adjacent the free end of the. pawl-actuating arm, and against which said end may contact, and a spring of low reactive power operative on the pawl to normally maintain the checking-arm thereof outside of the path of revolution of the reel-teeth.

2. In a trolley-cord-restraining device,..the combination with the casing having an axial stud and having a spring-stud penetrating the back of the casing adjacent the junction there- 7 with of said axial stud, of the Winding-reel, a sleeve surrounding said axial stud and having in its end face adjacent the back of the casing, the plurality of ratchet-teeth in which said spring-pressed stud engages, and the windingspring H disposed within the reel and having one end connected thereto and its other end engaged with said sleeve, substantially as and for the purpose explained.

Signed by me at Springfield, Massachusetts, in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

SETH J. BUCKLAND.

'Witnesses:

WM. S. BELLOWS, A. LEAHY. 

